In Collecting the Revolution, Emily R. Williams discusses different Britons seeing, collecting, and commenting on the artifacts of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). These objects, marked by the portraits of Mao Zedong or various political slogans, are often associated with Communist ideology or policies of Mao in public perceptions, and their global circulation could be understood in the context of the global influence of Maoism or left-wing movements. However, Williams’ research reveals a picture that is much more complex. She argues that the objects of the Cultural Revolution became the medium through which Britons experienced and understood China during this era in many ways. Through the collections and memories of many Britons from different careers, Williams emphasizes the diversity in two aspects: (1) the diverse views of China that these Britons had and (2) the diverse routes through which these objects traveled internationally. What promoted such international circulation of Mao-era objects included the governmental programs of China and the UK, as well as very personal experience and sentiments of individual Britons living in China or in their homeland.

Collecting the Revolution is a book about collection and material culture that centers on people more than on specific objects. The subtitle includes “Chinese Cultural Revolution Material Culture,” but Williams clarifies that she does not find it useful to draw a clear line between visual culture and material culture. Collecting the Revolution covers a wide range of cultural products including paintings, clothes, posters, papercuts, badges, as well as a variety of everyday objects such as enamel cups, yogurt jars, and toys. Each thematic chapter focuses on the ways (or places) that Britons met these objects instead of a certain type of object.

Part one consists of the first three chapters, moving from the viewing and consumption of Mao-era objects in the UK to the activities of Britons in China. Chapter 1 analyzes the proliferation of the images and style of “Mao suits” (known in China as zhongshanzhuang, meaning Sun Yat-sen suit) on screens and in stores in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. While the use of Mao suits in TV shows and movies was for homogeneous Chinese people or villains from Communist countries, certain designers and fashion stores used Mao suits as the symbol of left-wing identity. Chapter 2 discusses the British response to the exhibition of Huxian peasant paintings that toured the UK in 1976. Promoted by Chinese leaders as a means of cultural diplomacy, these paintings done by the peasants in Huxian, Shaanxi Province about their work and life were understood as a promising and invigorating alternative during the time in which artists and critics attacked the elitism in art production and called for stronger connection between art and society. Such dynamic international experience of Huxian peasant paintings and the Britons’ response might make readers of Chapter 2 wonder if these were the only group of peasant paintings having international fame and attracted Britons coming to China, and if so, what factors made their counterparts in other areas much less influential.

While the first two chapters also introduce some Britons traveling to China and buying Mao-suits as well as paintings, posters, and cards, Chapter 3 focuses on five specific Britons in China during the 1970s: a diplomat, a journalist, and three students. Collecting Cultural Revolution objects had different meanings for them: the sources to get political information, the reminders of past experiences in China, the access to learn about ordinary people’s everyday life, or the retreat from academic work. A variety of objects were collected by these British travelers in China, but only a few could be seen by readers through illustrations. More discussion about specific items in the collections of these people, as well as about whether or not certain designs or messages attracted them more than some others, would make the connection between objects and personal experience and perceptions stronger.

Unlike the emphasis on Britons’ diverse ideas generated by Mao-era objects in Part one, the topics of Part two direct readers’ attention to places—where the collections of individual collectors and public institutions came from and where they are currently. Chapter 4 introduces five personal collections. While the methodology and arguments continue those of Chapter 3, Williams stresses the self-consciousness of these collectors in amassing their large collections for the future as historical records and the transfer of many of these objects to museum and library collections. Chapter 5 discusses the collections of Mao-era objects in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, and the University of Westminster (having the largest public collection of Mao-era and Reform-era posters). The detailed narrative about each institution expanding its collections to take Mao-era objects and use them in exhibits shows the longtime preference of museums for collecting Chinese objects of literati traditions in imperial China. The addition of Mao-era objects was largely due to the decisions of certain curators to expand the scope of museum collections and the donations of many employees, further highlighting the contingency in the global circulation of Mao-era objects. The conclusion discusses the legacies of Cultural Revolution material culture in today’s UK (and China, as a comparison), highlighting the growing academic and market attention to these Mao-era objects.

Besides the rich information about individuals and institutional collections of Mao-era objects, Williams also uses these cases of personal engagements with the material culture of the Cultural Revolution to complicate current theories about objects and their relationship with people. Boundaries between the private and individual dimensions and the public and social dimension of collection, between visuality and materiality, and between the souvenir reminding personal experience and the collection highlighting classification and seriality could all be blurry. Collecting the Revolution is an inspiring read not only for the historians studying Sino-British interaction but also for the scholars in the field of material culture and museum studies.